PlanetCatfish.com

Hi,

I'm new here and would like to post my first question and hope anyone can share your experience.

As we know most L cats are wild caught ie. they should have their gut loaded with parasites.
Is it necessary to deworm them and how should one go about doing it. What medication and what is the procedure.

Thank you.
Kevin

AFAIK, most wild cught catfishes seldom carry parasites. Might not be a good idea to medicate them unnecessarily.

Hi,

Thks for the reply and noted your advise. I've always been under the impression that wild caught fishes carry parasites.

Anyway, can you recommend any medication I should use if i need to.
I read in another thread that royals are sensitive to certain medication as it kills their useful bacteria in their gut.

Thanks
Kevin

Atlas, the only time I've seen parasites in wild-caught fish has been in the gills, and that's rare. It's also something that you would notice very easily in looking at the fish. If they have something in thier guts, you will be able to tell by extreme bulging in which case you can consider isolation and treatment, but I've never seen or heard of a stomach parasite comming from wild-caught L cats.

Silurus wrote:AFAIK, most wild cught catfishes seldom carry parasites. Might not be a good idea to medicate them unnecessarily.

Didn't Larry Vires run a control test with a batch of common Loricariids, where he treated half with antihelminthics, the others he left to their own devices.
The survival rate of those treated was far greater than those left without.
On dissection of corpses I'm sure he found that most of the untreated fish had quite heavy worm loads, which could well have contributed to their deaths when combined with the stress of importation. It may be covered in 'Tricks', but I don't have my copy to hand right now.
I'm sure most British F/W fish carry parasites of one type or another. Practically every one I've ever taken apart was carrying a tapeworm, and I don't see why the situation should be any different in the tropics.
I'm sure I've got something on this somewhere, I'll see if I can dig it out.

In my experience, wild aught Loricarridae usually have internal parasites. The best medication for this is Levimasole hydrochloride. For gill flukes, coppersafe, which will also go after the ich too.

Where can you get Levimasole hydrochloride?
I am soon getting four WC L-46 and two or three L-260 which are allso WC, and i don't wan't to take any chances with them.

Thanks so much for the inputs.
There seems to be 2 schools of thought on whether WC fishes do carry parasites.

Anyway, I think it's always saver to quarantine and 'deworm' them to be on the save side.
I hope coelacanth can give us more insight into this topic (if he can dig out the article!).
Also, question for der Ingo, is there any commercial medication which contains Levimasole hydrchloride?

Let's hope this thread continue to be as educational as it is developing to be.

Regards
Kevin

Where can you get Levimasole hydrochloride?

In Denmark I get it @ the veterinary.

-Klaus

I also order mine through the veternary clinics. I have never seen it sold on shelves, but most vets are happy to order it for me.

I looked through Larry Vires book and found no mention of the reference listed above. There is a disease section but he did not give specifics on medication nor did he specifically talk about whether he treated new fish or not. Unless he made more than one book, but I am not aware of it.

Atlas wrote:There seems to be 2 schools of thought on whether WC fishes do carry parasites.

It's pretty much a given that any adult fish in the wild has parasites. This is normally not anything which bothers the fish -most parasites appear quite well-adjusted- and you pretty much have to dissect the fish to find them. There is even speculation that a low but non-zero parasite load is beneficial.

Normally, bottom-living fish have heavier parasite load than free-swimming; predatory fish a much higher load than herbivorous; and big, long-lived, fish a higher load than small & short lived.

As to whether survival of wild-caught fish is helped by medication... I don't know. I would guess so, I know that many (most?) exporters & importers routinely treat WC fish with antiparasitic medications and swear by this practice, but I don't know.